Child safety seats are utilized in vehicles to provide safer seating and restraint for children. Such child safety seats are placed on existing vehicle seats, and retained with the vehicles existing seat belt restraining system. The existing seat belt restraint system can include an elongated strap with a lap strap or belt and a shoulder strap or belt, between which is a latch plate of a buckle that buckles to a coupler of the buckle on another side of the seat.
Such child safety seats are often provided with a rear slot, or series of slots, through which the seat belt is inserted. Such child safety seats can provide a smaller seating area, supplemental side restraints, and/or a five point safety harness.
One problem with child safety seats is that they are commonly installed incorrectly. Incorrectly installed child safety seats can thwart the safety features of the child safety seat. It is reported that 71% of child seats are installed improperly, and that 215 children died in accidents in 2013 where their child seat was installed improperly. One problem commonly faced by users of such child safety seats is the difficulty associated with installing the child safety seat. As described above, such child safety seats are often provided with a rear slot, or series of slots, through which the seat belt is inserted to secure the child safety seat to the vehicle seat. Inserting the seat belt through the slot(s) can be difficult and frustrating. Some solutions have been proposed. For example, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,093,905 and 7,210,743. Such devices can require complex connections to the seat belt. Another solution has been to provide a base to which the child safety seat is removably secured; but, the seat belt must still be inserted through the base.